Forest fires raging
Over boundaries we’d imagined
They summon us to quick-step out
In one composite action.
Hurricanes accumulate
Quakes vie to rend asunder
To attain the highest rating
To awaken us from slumber.
Flash floods rumble through the house
Spring cleaning uninvited
Quick and stealthy as a mouse
To keep us on our toes.
Encroaching, torpid droughts
Effectively arrest
The flow of cornucopia
To make us plan ahead.
Blizzards shutting down the power
Cities paralyzed beneath a hyperborean cover
To make us huddle round
To make us look at one another.
Natural disasters, the dreaded educator
With switch in hand, he will not stand
For mindlessness and excess
Which deprecate the land.
The scientific finger points in our direction
Anthropogenic causes, a likely explanation
Faulting us for negligence
For unchecked exploitation.
Some say there is no solution
God is teaching us a lesson, yes
And science is the book, the bridge
To help us coalesce.
Creating controversy, intractable debates
To further postulated aims
Will only obfuscate
The way to elucidation.
Divisive and self-interested,
All partisan approaches will
Provoke the stern preceptor
To uproot the malady, to kill
All spurious arguments
Pseudo-science, bogus news
To help us find a common ground
A pliant discourse to be used.
Fair-minded, free, respectful
In the art of consultation
Careful not to cross the line
Ideas advanced with moderation.
All we do must stand the test
Of scientific inquiry
Objective facts won’t compromise
The truth with flawed utopian dreams
Constructive thought and action
Through the unfailing light
Of evidence, experience and spiritual mediation
Till people and the natural world in harmony unite.